Nigeria. The film is dedicated to the memory of Chief Hubert Ogunde, who helped recruit 150 extras for the road-digging scenes but died in 1990 before the film's completion. Release The film did not do well in box office in the US release, as Avenue Pictures, the film's U.S. distribution company, went bankrupt before the release date and "there was no money to release the film", according to the film's producer Michael Fitzgerald, in an interview conducted for Criterion Collection's home video release. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald consider this his "favorite film". The director Bruce Beresford said "... this is the best-reviewed film I have ever made.... My memory is, Mr. Johnson is the best film I have ever made." The film was given a PG-13 rating in the United States and a 12 rating by the British Board of Film Classification. Reception The film was well reviewed, but met with criticism for depicting Africans as servants to colonial Britons. In a positive review of the film, Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that "Mr. Beresford's film acknowledges the boundless optimism of its leading character even as it watches him paint himself into a corner" and that Johnson "is at his most purely touching in such joyous moments, loyally celebrating English principles even as they bring about his downfall." Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, writing that it "is a very subtle film, one where the ideas are sometimes in danger of being overwhelmed by the sheer exuberance of Eziashi's performance." John Simon of the National Review called Mister Johnson a work of genius. Mike D'Angelo of The A.V. Club wrote that "Johnson comes across on screen as gratifyingly complex—both a scoundrel and a hero, often at the same time. His unfailing optimism, even in the bleakest circumstances, makes him nearly impossible to dislike, no matter what sort of chicanery he's employing or advocating." He summarized that "it's a stronger picture than cinema history perhaps recalls, and welcome evidence that the director of 1989’s alleged Best Picture, though ignored by the Oscars, deserves some attention." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a rating of B−, writing that "Johnson, the invisible scoundrel, is never quite as innocent as he seems. Yet when you come right down to it, he’s still pretty innocent. Eziashi plays him with such a relentless, singsong inscrutability that by the end of the movie,